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Neren
Neren is Torben's constant companion and friend. She is a tall, female creature with many plant-like features who is not of the Material Plane. Humanoid in appearance and, at least superficially, in nature, Neren has accompanied Torben for almost five years and the two share a close bond. Though she appears quiet and reserved, and rarely speaks directly, when she is on the Material Plane she and Torben share a telepathic connection and communicate thought fragments and emotions almost constantly as they arise. __TOC__ Nature and Abilities In order for Neren to enter the Material Plane she must be summoned, though her relationship with Torben is different to that of a wizard and a summoned creature. Neither one of the pair can directly influence the other's actions through their link, in stark contrast to a wizard commanding a summoned thrall - nor would either ever seek to. However, the planar channel that allows Neren to remain present on the Material Plane requires Torben's conscious awareness of her presence, which is not possible when Torben is asleep or unconscious, and when Neren returns to home the pair lose their telepathic link; this can, however, be temporarily maintained if Torben is focused in a meditative state not unlike a summoning trance, assuming Neren is capable of responding at the time. Neren's true origins are mysterious, and mostly unknown even to her. She believes herself to be a reflection of the woodlands that grow to the south of Brightfield, the first place that she possesses any memory of; an image of trees and woodland, somehow without solid form and fragmented but nonetheless bathed in a sense of a connection to a place and a time. She is unaware of how long she existed in this state, conscious and aware but somehow static, wandering along paths that were not entirely there and passing the occasional person that seemed empty and devoid of life, until she encountered something truly solid and saturated with colour - a young man, sitting with his head bowed, and the first who was listening. Torben's perspective of their first meeting is similar - he would often take himself into the quiet of the woods to the south of Brightfield and meditate, hoping to hear the otherworldly voices that sometimes spoke loud enough to be heard across the planes, until the first time he heard a voice that was closer and calmer - and the first that had called to him by name. It was at that point that their connection formed, and the first time Neren had a more direct experience of the Material Plane that she had known, ghostlike, for so long. While Torben was initially wary about having two-way contact for the first time with an entity that so obviously was truly conscious and fully aware, the trust between them grew, and they formulated the ritual that would allow Neren to enter the Material Plane together. Appearance While Neren possesses the equivalent of a physical form when on her home plane, her form on the Material Plane is guided by the channel Torben creates and shaped by their collective intent. The pair must spend significant time and energy in telepathic contact to change this image, which always maintains her true home plane form as a basic template but can be augmented with any number of alterations and additions. Neren revels in her mutable form when summoned onto the Material Plane and Torben is usually more than content to allow her to select her own appearance, sharing in her delight as she learns to control her new abilities. Neren's outwardly humanoid shape varies in texture between wooden or bark-like rough areas that resemble the branches of actual trees to more skin-like regions that have a range of colourations between a pale grey to a deep green, over which she appears to be wearing a long shift. Mottled and textured similarly to her body, though retaining a fabric-like overall appearance, her clothing is actually a part of her form and cannot be removed. The same is true for a 'blindfold' she wears over her face where her eyes would be; this appears to be a silky band of folded black cloth, contrasting with her otherwise organic appearance. She is somewhat thin-lipped and there is a subtle point to her ears, further demonstrating her sylvan origins. The blindfold does not actually block her vision, instead somehow acting as her eyes instead, and she will usually turn to face things when looking at them. She does not wear shoes or boots - her feet appear human when travelling roads or inside buildings and cities, albeit very tough and with a grey pigmentation, though when walking through grass or forested areas they will keep their general shape but become more gnarled and wood-like in appearance. Her footsteps do not disturb grass or plants. Neren has always delighted in sharing her perception of her changing form with Torben, a difficult concept to communicate across their telepathic link and one that he finds fascinating, even if it occasionally feels profoundly strange and disorienting. Her altered form possesses two thick and bramble-like thorny stems that are coiled loosely around her arms, with their bases merging with the "skin" on her shoulders, both of which she is able to consciously control and move at lightning speed and with which she is able to grasp objects or attack enemies a fair distance away. Her hands, usually slender and human-like with a deep green colouring, are able to transform into razor-sharp wooden claws when she is threatened, and from her shoulder blades two large and leaf-like protrusions extend down the length of her body, varying in colouration with the strength of the sunlight in the area and allowing her to levitate. Relationship with Torben See Torben's page for more information. Relationship with the Party and individals of note Neren is relatively unfamiliar with how mortals interact with one another, the complexities and intricasies of connecting intent with action and the obfuscation of truth with fabrication all being quite foreign concepts to her. Neren usually takes things at face value and makes judgements readily, defining a person in her mind based on how that person is acting at that moment, though she will grow to understand a person more thoroughly over time as they become more familiar. She is able to recognise lies when she already knows things to be untrue, but often can't understand what a person's motivations might be for creating that lie in the first place - and, in a similar vein, finds it difficult to understand that a person's reason for acting a certain way might be different to another person's reasons. She is, however, keen to learn how mortals see the world and the part they have to play within it, and she and Torben often spend time exploring each other's perceptions of the people they meet. While they are in telepathic contact Torben is usually able to explain a person's behaviour well enough for her to understand, and in the same way she is almost always able to understand why Torben acts in the way that he does. Neren is rather blunt when describing people she doesn't know well and has little perception of the reasons why people might be offended by her assessment of their nature when, as far as she can see, it is objectively correct; Torben does, however, try to temper this reaction as best he can. Her bluntness is only true for her thoughts on people, though; she can go into great depth when talking about places or objects, reveling in the much "brighter" perception she has of them while on the material plane, and she fully understands that other people's opinions, likes and dislikes may not match her own.